The glory that is the British & Irish Lions!....Bring on the All Blacks!

[gweilgi]

14 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

personally, loved it. loved the series. reminded me why i love rugby and i really needed reminding.

Amen.

Especially as we continued watching after the test and had to sit through the abysmal performance by the Waratahs.  Kudos to Foley, but I ended up cheering for the Jaguars.

 

14 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

i did say i'd like a drawn series, three nil all draws but this will do.

three cracking games, getting across for one, seeing the all blacks beaten at home, a drawn series and one which finishes with the all blacks whinging about a decision that could have (should have) given them the series. i'm starting to wonder if i wrote the script in a parallel universe.

as a postscript, hate to be the next side the all blacks play. oh whoops, that is us. we'll be massacred.

also, dan carter plays that series and the all blacks win 3-0. comfortably. barrett is not carter's bootlace. and even if he turns into something brilliant with time, this is a series he'll never get back.

What mystifies me is why they keep letting Barrett take their goal kicks.  He missed a penalty and conversion, neither of which were that tricky.  

On the upside, I had $5 on the Lions to win ... and sportsbet paid out half, so I'm in the money.  Woo hoo. 

 

14 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

gatland for next coach of the all blacks? oh if only we could poach him (and 15 of their players).

Would be a good choice.  I was going to say "not likely to happen", but sometimes inspired coaching appointments do happen (#eddieforengland)...

[El Presidente]

Cracker game and well done to the lions. no one really gave them a chance coming into the series 

I was texting with a mate who was in italy watching the game on a 20" tv  at 9am in a local bar with 199 lions supporters and one bloke in an AB jersey. 

Great fun. The last 5 minutes were insane. 

I was expecting either the All blacks or the lions to choke. It never crossed my mind that the ref and the TMO would choke 

[99call]

8 hours ago, El Presidente said:

Cracker game and well done to the lions. no one really gave them a chance coming into the series 

I was texting with a mate who was in italy watching the game on a 20" tv  at 9am in a local bar with 199 lions supporters and one bloke in an AB jersey. 

Great fun. The last 5 minutes were insane. 

I was expecting either the All blacks or the lions to choke. It never crossed my mind that the ref and the TMO would choke 

Haha,  I think a great deal of respect has got to go to Sam Warburtons ability to Jedi mind trick refs.

 

[99call]

As a counter point out there, to all fans in NZ winging about the penalty downgrade, apparantly their is a still out there  (i've seen the footage and he's a mile off-side) of Kieran Reid about 5 meters ahead of Bauden Barritt's Kick off.  If they want to be winge about is, they should consider Daly could of banged it over from the half way to win it the other way.

For every infringement, there is one the other way!!

[Ken Gargett]

6 hours ago, 99call said:

As a counter point out there, to all fans in NZ winging about the penalty downgrade, apparantly their is a still out there  (i've seen the footage and he's a mile off-side) of Kieran Reid about 5 meters ahead of Bauden Barritt's Kick off.  If they want to be winge about is, they should consider Daly could of banged it over from the half way to win it the other way.

For every infringement, there is one the other way!!

that is a good point but not sure he'd have got out alive had he given that penalty.

the other thing i would add is that this is something almost never policed by officials so to do it at that moment would have raised questions. you see it almost every kickoff - guys offside. and a ref and two linesmen ignore it. at every level. to stop it, all they need to do is start giving penalties. players will very quickly stop.

[99call]

10 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

that is a good point but not sure he'd have got out alive had he given that penalty.

the other thing i would add is that this is something almost never policed by officials so to do it at that moment would have raised questions. you see it almost every kickoff - guys offside. and a ref and two linesmen ignore it. at every level. to stop it, all they need to do is start giving penalties. players will very quickly stop.

Sadly Ken, Much like crooked feeds to the scrum....rugby it travelling in the other trajectory towards football.  The death of the 10meter penalty retreat (for mouthing off) kills me. It was the embodiment of rugby union values.  

Reading the New Zealand Herald today, what a joke!.  I wish New Zealanders would let go this concept that they are not as bitter or as childish as any other sports fans. They give you a short speech about how down to earth they are, and how they drink their morning milk strait from the cows teats, and how it's not like them to blame anything on a ref..........then proceed to give you a 30min lecture on how the referee is an idiot, and that he should be "sanctioned",   Sounds very Kim Jong Il to me.

Lovely to see them having to answer a few self doubts, every once in a while, but yes, as you've mentioned this will lead to a 2 year assault of blood lust. 

Good bit of classic Hanson in a debrief this Morn, when a reporters phone continuously goes off in a press call.

Reporter:   "Jesus Christ!!!"

Hanson:    "He's not going to answer it"

Reporter:  "The stupid thing is broken!"

Hanson:    "Why can I hear it then?"

 

[JohnS]

What a great result and Test series, especially after the way the tour started so slowly for the Lions. It was great for Rugby overall. New Zealand have issues Beauden Barrett at fly-half and goalkicker which needs to be addressed, in my opinion.

[dimi68]

It was a boring game!

rubbish refereeing!

And the breaks in play were sooo long i managed to cook a BBQ, wash the car & clean the eaves of cobwebs!

[Ken Gargett]

38 minutes ago, dimi68 said:

It was a boring game!

rubbish refereeing!

And the breaks in play were sooo long i managed to cook a BBQ, wash the car & clean the eaves of cobwebs!

if that was boring then can we assume you are not a rugby fan? cage fighting perhaps?

[99call]

12 hours ago, JohnS said:

What a great result and Test series, especially after the way the tour started so slowly for the Lions. It was great for Rugby overall. New Zealand have issues Beauden Barrett at fly-half and goalkicker which needs to be addressed, in my opinion.

Agree with this on Beauden. Majestic runner, but I reckon if you broke it down, he may rack up 17 points on an average match, but leave 9 out there, where as Dan Carter or Johnny Wilkenson leave 3 points on the pitch every 4 games (in their prime). Also Carter and Wilko were more effective in defence. 

More importantly than the points, it means opposition teams can infringe at will in the rucks, in the knowledge, he will likely spoon kicks. I allows you to slow down phase play, push up the blitz defence, force handling areas etc etc.

[Ken Gargett]

21 minutes ago, 99call said:

Agree with this on Beauden. Majestic runner, but I reckon if you broke it down, he may rack up 17 points on an average match, but leave 9 out there, where as Dan Carter or Johnny Wilkenson leave 3 points on the pitch every 4 games (in their prime). Also Carter and Wilko were more effective in defence. 

More importantly than the points, it means opposition teams can infringe at will in the rucks, in the knowledge, he will likely spoon kicks. I allows you to slow down phase play, push up the blitz defence, force handling areas etc etc.

jonny was a great kick and he was a better defender than many thought, i believe, and that includes clive who often hid him, but he was light years behind carter in attack and controlling a game. i'd argue that both lynagh and mclean were more complete fly halves than jonny. carter took over from them as the best, i believe. and as an aussie, you can imagine how hard it is for me to say that.

[99call]

13 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

jonny was a great kick and he was a better defender than many thought, i believe, and that includes clive who often hid him, but he was light years behind carter in attack and controlling a game. i'd argue that both lynagh and mclean were more complete fly halves than jonny. carter took over from them as the best, i believe. and as an aussie, you can imagine how hard it is for me to say that.

Ha, dont worry Ken, as a Welshman, I have no major interest in championing Johnny. It's great to see all the different styles, but Yep Carter had them all.

[Ken Gargett]

1 minute ago, 99call said:

Ha, dont worry Ken, as a Welshman, I have no major interest in championing Johnny. It's great to see all the different styles, but Yep Carter had them all.

before the poms v welsh (and i have heritage from both, as well as scotland, but of course love to see the poms beaten) game in brizzy in the world cup years ago, i was in a pub near the ground. me, 200 pommy supporters and about a dozen welsh supporters. the welsh sang and chanted away, leaving the poms almost silent (quite amazing the effect they had on the poms) and none of the songs could be repeated here, being a family site, but they did have one especially brilliant song called 'have you ever seen johnny with a girl'... never forgot it.

very cruel but it was funny. guess he had the last laugh.

[99call]

The greatest place kicker of all time though, is Neil Jenkins, which was important, as he had little else in this game, sadly for me

[99call]

1 minute ago, Ken Gargett said:

before the poms v welsh (and i have heritage from both, as well as scotland, but of course love to see the poms beaten) game in brizzy in the world cup years ago, i was in a pub near the ground. me, 200 pommy supporters and about a dozen welsh supporters. the welsh sang and chanted away, leaving the poms almost silent (quite amazing the effect they had on the poms) and none of the songs could be repeated here, being a family site, but they did have one especially brilliant song called 'have you ever seen johnny with a girl'... never forgot it.

very cruel but it was funny. guess he had the last laugh.

My brother did sports science at loughborough in late 1990's which is the main England rugby breeding ground, and yep rumours were rife as whether Johnny enjoyed Snails instead of oysters, as Sir Lawrence Olivier would put it. 

[99call]

6 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

before the poms v welsh (and i have heritage from both, as well as scotland, but of course love to see the poms beaten) game in brizzy in the world cup years ago, i was in a pub near the ground. me, 200 pommy supporters and about a dozen welsh supporters. the welsh sang and chanted away, leaving the poms almost silent (quite amazing the effect they had on the poms) and none of the songs could be repeated here, being a family site, but they did have one especially brilliant song called 'have you ever seen johnny with a girl'... never forgot it.

very cruel but it was funny. guess he had the last laugh.

I was marooned trying to catch SA v Wales a couple of years ago, and was in a horridly snooty area of London, Barnes and the White Hart Pub. 

I paid for my £8 pound pint and entered into the TV room only to met with  45 Huge Saffers.  It was awful. we were beaten as usual, but all the way through they sang Welsh hymn's with disgraceful lyrics. I had to marvel though, they new some pretty unusual numbers, 'Sosban Fach' 'Myfanwy' 'Calon Lan' etc etc they did them all. and managed to offend me, my forefathers, and every sheep in Wales.   I felt like I was actually choking

[Ken Gargett]

8 hours ago, 99call said:

The greatest place kicker of all time though, is Neil Jenkins, which was important, as he had little else in this game, sadly for me

he was not bad.

the one that sticks in my memory was ollie campbell who toured here in 79. don't think he missed a kick. we lost twice to the irish, two games we should have easily won. and more frustrating was that they beat the reds. 18-15 i think and all kicks by ollie. but what still grates was that in those days, the home nation would put up 3 names of local refs for the tests and the visiting side would pick one. some monumental scumbag from nsw did the reds game and blew us off the park to try and  get the test. i wanted him to suffer horrible fates.